Summary: <p>On today's Deep Dive, Melissa and Dorian take an in-depth look at sex work and how it's been criminalized in the United States, starting off with journalist and former sex worker <a href="https://twitter.com/melissagira">Melissa Gira Grant</a>, who discusses the history of criminalizing sex work in the U.S.</p> <p>Then Cecilia Gentili, principal consultant and founder of <a href="https://www.transequityconsulting.com/blog/ceciliagentili">Trans Equity Consulting</a>, and LaLa B. Holston-Zannell, trans justice campaign manager in the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/by/lala-b-holston-zannell/">National Advocacy Department at the ACLU</a>, explain the idea of sex work as work and why some advocates are calling for full decriminalization.</p> <p><a href="https://twitter.com/yvafa?lang=en">Yasmin Vafa</a>, executive director of <a href="https://rights4girls.org/">Rights 4 Girls</a>, discusses concerns that sex work increases opportunities for sex trafficking, particularly the trafficking of children. </p> <p>RJ Thompson, managing director of the <a href="https://swp.urbanjustice.org/">Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center</a>, helps break down some of the stigma surrounding sex work as well as how and why male sex workers are often left out of conversations around sex work.</p> <p>And finally <a href="https://twitter.com/lexual__">Elexus Jionde</a>, author, content creator and founder of Intelexual Media, explores how technology, digital communication and the “realites” of the virtual world will continue to shape the future of sex work.</p> <p><em>Some of the music on this podcast was made by Touque (<a target="_blank" class="c-link" data-stringify-link="https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/soho-sessions" data-sk="tooltip_parent" href="https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/soho-sessions" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-remove-tab-index="true" tabindex="-1">https://davidaaron4.bandcamp.com/album/soho-sessions</a>), Hannis Brown (<a target="_blank" class="c-link" data-stringify-link="https://www.hannisbrown.com/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" href="https://www.hannisbrown.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-remove-tab-index="true" tabindex="-1">https://www.hannisbrown.com/</a>), James Perry, and j. cowit (<a target="_blank" class="c-link" data-stringify-link="https://jcowit.bandcamp.com/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" href="https://jcowit.bandcamp.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-remove-tab-index="true" tabindex="-1">https://jcowit.bandcamp.com/</a>)</em></p>
